A Scientific Revolution Did Happen in the Later Part of the Middle Ages
Essay by Nicolas • September 13, 2011 • Essay • 952 Words (4 Pages) • 2,755 Views
Essay Preview: A Scientific Revolution Did Happen in the Later Part of the Middle Ages
- Define what a scientific revolution is
o Complete change (give examples) in ideas/ methods in the practice of science
o Attitude of society more open minded
o Change of belief in religion humanism (Not to dwell too much on definitions.)
Our points/ arguments to substantiate our stand:
- Show instruments/ inventions that indicate the existence of a scientific revolution (= complete change in methods [...] of science)
- Prominent figures that emerged (also an indication of new ideas/ practices introduced.)
- Development of the scientific method (which had its focus on empirical data and experimentation & deductions to prove a hypothesis.)
- Mention the advent of the printing press and translations, which eased the spread of knowledge.
- Scale of the scientific revolution: large area of Europe. (These two points in red may not be very useful.)
- Back up points with evidence from different civilisations. Important
o According to an article on Wikipedia, it can be argued that the 'scientific revolution' was merely a play different multicultural influence on scientific ideas. Article below ▼
Not all historians of science are agreed that there was any revolution in the sixteenth or seventeenth century.Another contrary view has been recently proposed by Arun Bala in his dialogical history of the birth of modern science. Bala argues that the changes involved in the Scientific Revolution - the mathematical realist turn, the mechanical philosophy, the corpuscular (atomic) philosophy, the central role assigned to the Sun in Copernican heliocentrism - have to be seen as rooted in multicultural influences on Europe. Islamic science gave the first exemplar of a mathematical realist theory with Alhazen's Book of Optics in which physical light rays traveled along mathematical straight lines. The swift transfer of Chinese mechanical technologies in the medieval era shifted European sensibilities to perceive the world in the image of a machine. The Indian number system, which developed in close association with atomism in India, carried implicitly a new mode of mathematical atomic thinking. And the heliocentric theory which assigned central status to the sun, as well as Newton's concept of force acting at a distance, were rooted in ancient Egyptian religious ideas associated with Hermeticism. Bala argues that by ignoring such multicultural impacts we have been led to a Eurocentric conception of the Scientific Revolution. During the 17th century, however, Western Europeans overtook everyone and went much further.
o No escape from the definition of 'revolution' as 'change,' and change in science definitely took place evidences must show that science has changed give specific examples of how science changed drastically over a short period of time (~200 years)
o Geocentric theory heliocentric theory (shows a change in perspective of science)
o Power and knowledge in science shifted to the western world (?)
o Fundamentals of modern science are built upon work during the scientific revolution.
- Categories of examples can include: use of science to explain things, use of technology (for military, or for medicine,) in the fields of astronomy (the Chinese, Copernicus, Galileo,) separation of science and religion
Kindly add on to these evidences/ points above if you have any, and email your additions to everyone. Thank you.
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